Appellate Procedure 32(g). It is the responsibility of the filing
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
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party to ensure that the certificate of compliance is accurate. (c) Informal Brief. An informal principal brief should be typewritten, but block printing or, as a last resort, legible handwriting is permitted. An informal principal brief must not exceed thirty (30) pages of typewritten double- spaced text or its equivalent.
An informal reply brief must not exceed fifteen (15) pages of typewritten double-spaced text or its equivalent. If prepared on the court’s form, the form pages count against the total page limitation. The paper informal briefs may be secured by a single staple in the left-hand corner in lieu of any other form of binding required by Federal Circuit Rule 32(h). (d) Form of Appendix or Addendum.
The court encourages the double-sided printing of the pages of the appendix, an appendix combined with a brief, and an addendum. (e) Pagination. Submissions to the court over two (2) pages must include page numbers. The page number must be centered at the bottom of the page and need not be included on a cover page.
(f) Page Proof. Page proof copies of documents must not be filed with the court. (g) Signature Authority; Multiple Signatures. (1) Appearance Prerequisites.
After a case is docketed, documents filed in that case on behalf of a represented party can only be signed by an attorney who has filed an entry of appearance for that party. (2) Signature Authority. Any person having actual authority may sign a document on behalf of counsel or an unrepresented party who is unavailable to sign or incapable of signing, provided the filing also includes as an attachment an affidavit of authority or an unsworn declaration of authority under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746. (3) Documents Requiring Multiple Signatures.
Federal Circuit Rules of Practice (December 1, 2025) FEDERAL CIRCUIT RULE 32 (Return to Table of Contents) Any document requiring the signature of more than one party or individual must include the signature of the filer and account for all other signatures in either one or a combination of the following fashions: (A) (B) (C) The document may contain the handwritten signatures of the other parties or individuals. The document may contain the electronic signatures of the other parties or individuals with their consent and must so state that consent. The document may identify the other parties or individuals required to sign, and those parties or individuals must file a notice endorsing the signature within three (3) business days after filing. (h) Binding.
Paper copies of briefs and appendices must be securely bound along the left margin to ensure that the bound copies will not loosen or fall apart and that the brief will lie reasonably flat when open. (i) Extraneous Markings. Parties must not include any highlighting or extraneous markings within either the briefs or the appendix beyond confidentiality notations required by these rules or markings that originally appeared on appendix materials in the record below. Federal Circuit Rules of Practice (December 1, 2025) (Return to Table of Contents) PRACTICE NOTES TO RULE 32 Preferred Cover Content.
In addition to the requirements of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(a)(2)(D), the court encourages inclusion on the cover of the name of the judge, when applicable, from whose judgment appeal is taken. Print Size of Briefs. Parties should avoid photo-reproduction that reduces the print size of the original smaller than the size required by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32. Footnotes.
The typeface requirements of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(a)(5) apply to all text in the brief, including footnotes. Copies of Patent Documents. Oversize patent documents reproduced in a brief or appendix should be photo-reduced to 8 1/2 by 11 inches if readability can be maintained; otherwise, they should be folded and bound so they do not protrude from the covers of the brief or appendix. Certificate of Compliance.
Using Federal Circuit Form 19 satisfies the requirements for a certificate of compliance with type-volume limitations under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(g)(1) and Federal Circuit Rule 32(b)(3). Parties are reminded that some software programs do not automatically include footnotes. When certain text is marked for word count or line count purposes, a party may need to separately mark text in footnotes and include those words or lines in the certified count. Filings in Companion Cases.
Except when otherwise ordered, all filings in companion cases must be made in each individual case with the individual case numbers and case captions included on each respective case-specific filing. Unless otherwise directed, required paper copies must be submitted in each respective case. Federal Circuit Rules of Practice (December 1, 2025) (Return to Table of Contents) FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 Citing Judicial Dispositions (a) Citation Permitted. A court may not prohibit or restrict the citation of federal judicial opinions, orders, judgments, or other written dispositions that have been: (i) designated as “unpublished,” “not for publication,” “non- precedential,” “not precedent,” or the like; and (ii) issued on or after January 1, 2007.
(b) Copies Required. If a party cites a federal judicial opinion, order, judgment, or other written disposition that is not available in a publicly accessible electronic database, the party must file and serve a copy of that opinion, order, judgment, or disposition with the brief or other paper in which it is cited.